All That Remains
by SiriuslyMarauderObsessed
Summary: AU: After Lily and James' Potter's deaths, Sirius and Remus must cope with the tragedy, while raising baby Harry at the same time. Wolfstar.
1. Chapter 1

Remus opened the front door, and walked in, looking around at the still-dark apartment as Sirius followed behind him. He looked around the room, feeling disconnected from everything that was going on, like he was watching it all from somewhere else, somewhere calm and far away. Only Harry's sudden crying made him snap out of it and turn on the lights.

Sirius stared at the crying child in his arms with a panicked expression.

"Remus, Harry's crying, and I don't know anything about infant care, what am I supposed to do, and the last time he cried I couldn't make him stop and Lily hit me on the head and told me to stop taking him on rides on Moonshadow because that will give a child nightmares but now I don't know what to do and he's still crying and Remus what do I do?! Does he need food? Harry, do you need food? Remus, do we have any food? What do you feed a baby?"

"I'm pretty sure we still have some Cheerios here somewhere… He likes those, he ate them last time we babysat…Wait, let me get them. Sirius, for God's sake, don't just stare at Harry. Give him a hug or walk him around or something! He won't explode." Remus rummaged around Sirius' cupboard while Sirius paced around the flat with Harry, trying to think of a way to calm him down .

"Remus, does Harry like music? Would that help? Can either of us sing? It might be worth a shot, but I can't sing, so I should probably just not do that…"

"Just sing, Sirius. The neighbors will complain if he doesn't stop crying, and I'm not getting you kicked out of another apartment, you just got this one."

"Right then, er, here goes nothing…" While still walking around the flat, at a much less panicked speed, Sirius quietly half hummed and half sang. Muggle rock songs, of course, and only the best of them.

Remus stopped for a second, his back still turned, arms up to his elbows in the cupboard, to listen to Sirius.

Harry's crying quieted some, as he tried to listen to the soft sound. Sirius looked over to Remus, not daring to stop singing yet.

Remus finally gave up on the cereal. He walked towards them, looking at Harry, who seemed calmer. "I bet he's exhausted."

"Where should we put him for a nap? Just in the bedroom?" Sirius looked around the flat, which was a bit lacking in furniture, let alone a place for a baby to sleep safely.

"I guess. One of us could sleep on the couch, and the other one could take care of him. Or something."

"I'll keep an eye on him. I won't be sleeping anytime soon as it is. You should try to get some rest, if you can." Remus laughed once, dryly. "You're crazy if you think I'm going to sleep and leave you all by yourself all night." He got closer to Sirius and peered at Harry. "Shh. I think he's asleep." Sirius looked down at Harry in surprise and whispered to Remus, "Suppose we should put him to bed then? Is there anything we have to do?" He looked back up at Remus. "Merlin's pants, we have no idea what we're doing, do we?"

"None whatsoever" He looked at the peacefully sleeping Harry again. "Yeah, I think we should put him to bed before he wakes up again. "I can put on some coffee if you want."

"That would be great. I'll go try to get him settled in." Sirius grabbed a pillow from the living room couch, only able to hold one while carrying Harry, and walked back into the other room.

When Sirius returned, Remus was already sitting down on the old couch, drinking out of an overly large green mug. Sirius flopped down on the couch, sprawling across Remus's lap. "I set up one of the monitor spells, so we'll be able to hear anything if there's a problem." He took the extra mug Remus brought. "Thanks much for the coffee. That'll help."

Remus sipped his coffee, not answering. After a while, he sighed. "Sirius...what are we going to _do_?"

"The best we can. It's all we can do. I have no idea how we're going to pull this off. Honestly, we don't have the money, supplies, or experience, but we're going to just have to make it work." Sirius finished the last of his coffee and slouched back into the couch cushions.

"I don't mean Harry. What are we going to do without James, Sirius? Without Lily, and without James. How can we... I mean, Lily and James are... were... Oh God, Sirius. What are we going to _do_?"

"I dont have any idea what we're going to do. I don't... I'm not...I can't...I don't know what to do. It's James and Lily. They can't be."

"And... I mean, how could... Sirius, what are we going to do without James?" Remus cried out, forgetting to be quiet so as not to wake Harry.

"Shh, shh, be careful, Harry is sleeping."

After looking over frantically at the bedroom, Sirius turned back to Remus. "We're going to do exactly what James would do if it were us. Only one person knew where they were. It could only have been him, and I'm sure of it."

Remus sighed. "Peter".

"Peter. I don't understand how he could do it. We're all family. I can't understand how he could even _think_ of doing something like that." Sirius was staring out the window, where city life seemed to have slowed, almost as if even the Muggles knew subconsciously that something had happened.

Remus looked over the city as well, still gripping his mug. "I just don't understand how he could do it Sirius. I mean, I know that we've drifted apart some since graduation, with him moving across the city for that new job of his, and with us practically living together, and with Ja-..."

Remus winced, but continued. "And with James getting married. But I could never imagine he would do something like this. How could I have imagined it? He was family. We were planning on spending Christmas together, Sirius! Christmas, for God's sake. "

"I never would have thought-" Suddenly, the sound of Harry crying and the quiet chiming of the monitoring spell rang through the flat. Sirius stood up quickly. "Hold on, I'll go make sure he's alright." With that, he nearly ran back to the bedroom, where, soon, the sound of crying was replaced with the sound of the old turntable playing quietly.

Remus stood up and walked to the window, drinking the last of his (now cold) coffee. He smiled as he heard the turntable. It had been James' idea for them to buy it for Sirius' sixteenth birthday. They had saved up for it all year (Peter and himself working during the summer, James tutoring some first years in Potions, and all of their combined efforts to clean out the Potter's ridiculously cluttered attic) just to buy the old thing, but it had been worth it, seeing Sirius' reaction.

Yes, the Marauders had had some bad times: first finding out about Remus' lycanthropy, James and Lily's first big fight, the whole mess with Snape in sixth year (which had caused Sirius and Remus' first big fight)...but they never imagined it would end up like this.

After a while, Remus realized that he hadn't heard any noise coming from the bedroom in a while. He put his mug on the sink, making a mental note to wash it later (Sirius was notoriously bad at remembering to wash the dishes).

He walked to the bedroom, and pushed the door open slowly, trying to be as quiet as possible. He smiled at what he found inside. Harry had fallen asleep all right, but so had Sirius. They were both curled up on the bed, fast asleep, with one of Harry's tiny hands swallowed up in one of Sirius' big ones.

Remus smiled, and pulled a blanket out from the closet and over both of them.

They would get through this, he suddenly knew. It would be hard, harder than anything any of them had ever had to face before, but they would. They had to.

He turned of the lights, and quietly walked out of the room, softly closing the door behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

Sirius stood up and stretched, having been bent over the crates in the room which were covered in maps and newspapers. From his room, he could hear Remus in the kitchen with Harry. It seemed like only yesterday that Harry had come to live with them. It took him a few moments to realize that it had already been a week since That Night, and he was barely any closer to finding Peter. With that realization, he went back to his hourly check of the 28 individual tracking spells currently searching, and then sat down again in defeat when none of them showed any results.

Remus walked in then, carrying Harry with one arm and a mug of steaming coffee in the other. He noticed Sirius' dejected expression and placed the mug next to him. "Drink it. You'll feel better." He fussed with Harry's hair for a while. It never managed to stay down, and was ridiculously unmanageable. There also seemed to be some gum in there, which certainly didn't help.

Sirius seemed to have been startled, getting up quickly and knocking over one of the crates. It almost appeared as though he had forgotten that other people also inhabited the flat. "Remus! Coffee at a time like this, really? I just had a cup, what was it, an hour ago? No, hold on…" Sirius looked around the room, finding the most recent coffee mug, which had clearly been there untouched for a day at the very least. "Maybe a little more than an hour. The fact still remains. I don't have time for coffee. I have to find him."

"Actually, you are right. This is really not the time for coffee. You are way too jumpy. This is a time wine. Also, I made some brownies. They are a little burnt, but not too bad." He passed Harry to Sirius then. "If you do want to have one though, you've got to change him. It's your turn."

Remus then promptly hurried out of the room before the responsibility of yet another messy diaper could be assigned to him. Besides, he thought, spending time for Harry would be good for Sirius. It might help him calm down.

It wasn't like Remus didn't want Peter to be caught. He did, and had even dreamed about it a few times. But it wasn't entirely because of justice against Peter. There wasn't justice for this type of thing. He could be stuck in Azkaban forever, and it still wouldn't make what he did right. James and Lily were not coming back, and that thought weighed him down so much sometimes he felt like laying down and never getting up again. But he had to, for Sirius' and for Harry's sakes.

The real reason he wanted Peter caught was because he was afraid of what Sirius might do. But he couldn't tell Sirius that, of course. They had barely even mentioned his name since… that day. But Remus knew that it was all Sirius could think about, and that worried him deeply.

He shook his head, trying to clear it of the cloudy mess inside his head, and then went to eat one more brownie.

Meanwhile, Sirius had changed Harry's diaper, and went into the kitchen, leaving his room for the first time in days. "Remus? You still remember that spell you used to do for the headaches, right? Now might be a good time for that." Grabbing one of the brownies off of the counter, Sirius went to sit on the couch. Entering the room, he couldn't help but think of how vastly his world had changed in a week. The record player hadn't been touched since the first night they brought Harry home. He knew for a fact that Remus was the only reason that there wasn't dust on every surface. But Sirius was sure he could always depend on Remus to keep things in order. Tracking Peter took too much time to worry about simple things like food. He could only think of finding him. Killing him would be ideal, but Remus would never allow it. He would have to settle for his imprisonment. Azkaban would be mercy for a crime of that level. Of course, it was all too clear that catching Peter would never bring back- Sirius shook his head. It would never undo what had been done. But it is what needed to be done. His life, his whole thought and mind, had been flipped completely around. He couldn't afford to stop moving, stop looking. If he stopped looking, he wasn't sure he would be able to cope when he actually had to face what had happened. Sirius shook his head again, leaned back into the back of the couch, still holding Harry.

Harry reached out and pulled Sirius' nose. Remus walked in right then, hair wet and a towel around his neck. He laughed at Sirius' expression. It was an odd mixture of outrage and surprise, but not really in a bad way, and it made him think of their days back at Hogwarts. He missed a lot of things about Hogwarts, and Sirius' faces, especially whenever any of them managed to sneak anything alcoholic into the castle, were definitely one of the things he missed most. He was a bit more serious now, no pun intended, and a bit more mature, even though Sirius always denied it whenever Remus mentioned it, and would then always go out of his way to pull some crazy ridiculous stunt. Last time he somehow managed to turn the apartment into a bouncy house. Remus hadn't been able to figure out how to turn it back to normal, and they'd had to live in it for a week (which hadn't been too bad, if Remus was forced to admit it, which Sirius had made him do multiple times).

Harry let go of Sirius' nose and patted it. "Aadfoo."

Sirius froze, and so did Remus. "You heard that too, didn't you? It's not just me losing my mind?" Sirius said out of the corner of his mouth, as still as possible, almost like he was afraid of spooking Harry.

"That happened years ago, Sirius."

"Good point. Doesn't change the fact that I'm absolutely brilliant th-"

Sirius was interrupted by Harry whacking him on the nose and yelling out "Padfoo!" at the same time. Remus cracked up, and Sirius rubbed his nose while staring at Harry, eyes wide. "I have very mixed feelings about this child, Remus."

Remus laughed and reached for Harry, who promptly smiled innocently and closed his eyes, looking for all the world like a little angel who would never think of attacking people's noses.

"How do you do that?" Sirius asked, standing up while still rubbing his nose. Harry was surprisingly strong for such a chubby little baby.

"Magic, Padfoot. Magic." Remus said, his back to Sirius as he walked out of the room to put Harry back in his crib.

"No, but really."

Remus didn't answer, and closed the door behind him slowly, careful not to wake Harry.

"Wait, you WERE kidding, right? RIGHT?!"


	3. Chapter 3

Remus loosened his tie and rubbed his temples before unlocking the apartment door. He opened it slowly, a habit that he had gotten from trying not to wake up Harry with the continuously squeaky doors that Sirius never seemed to fix. He walked into the room, saw Sirius, and them promptly rushed to take Harry away from him. Sirius looked up in surprise, and saw Remus turning Harry over, frantically searching for bruises and injuries.

"He's fine, you've left him alone with me before you know. I am capable of taking care of him while you're out!"

"Sirius."

"Yes, oh overly concerned and untrustful Moony?"

"Why in the Merlin's left eye socket did Harry have a **drill**?!"

"I'm teaching him the necessary tool of the noble art of fixing motorbikes! It's never too early to learn!"

"Considering the drill is bigger than him, I would say yes, Sirius, it is."

"You, Remus, are absolutely no fun."

Harry shook his head up and down energetically then, much to the surprise of both Remus and Sirius. "See! Even Harry agrees!"

Remus rolled his eyes and dropped the squirming Harry in his high-chair, which Sirius had ordered a few weeks back from a muggle catalog. Unfortunately for Harry though, Sirius had no idea how to use a muggle catalog, so Harry's high-chair was bright pink and covered in drawings of tiaras and fairy-wands. Harry didn't seem to mind much though, and Remus hadn't had time to change it.

"I think he's just hungry. I am too, actually." Remus went to open one of the cupboards, but was almost immediately tackled by what seemed like a huge furry dog for a second, and then once again looked like Sirius.

"Sirius?" said Remus on the floor, face down on the kitchen linoleum.

"Yeah?" answered Sirius, who was calmly sitting on his back.

"You did remember to buy the food like I told you to, didn't you?"

Sirius had an expression of guilt very fitting of the huge bear of a dog. "Well see, I was going to, but I was getting ready to go, and I realized I haven't had any business at the shop in a while. Not many people need automobiles fixed right now, especially with... everything that's going on." Sirius picked Harry up out of his chair, which he thought was honestly the more appealing of the two options presented in a catalog the lovely woman next door had given him, even if Remus disagreed. He turned back to Remus. "And I remembered you got your paycheck today from your new job, and wouldn't it be nice if we made a family trip of it?" With that, he turned to go get Harry dressed for what seemed to have become a proper adventure.

Remus opened the cupboard without being tackled this time. Inside was one lonely bag of crisps that he was sure had been there since before they had moved into the apartment. "Family trip it is then."

* * *

Remus looked for a cart while Sirius took Harry and ran off to look for who knows what. It took him a while to find a cart that didn't roll away from him as soon as he got close. He sighed after the fourth rolled away from him. He had no idea why it happened, but he expected it had something to do with the charm that made them follow people without being pushed being similar to one that changed self-rolling suitcases into chihuahuas. Chihuahuas had never liked him. Most animals didn't.

He had finally managed to catch one of the carts when he heard a loud crash. He sighed and pushed the reluctant cart towards the noise.

Remus didn't have to go far before a giant black furry mess came bounding down the aisle, carrying Harry, who was smiling and giggling, by the overalls as gently as possible. No sooner had Padfoot reached Remus and hid behind him than three security officers rounded the corner of the same aisle, looking very agitated an out of breath. Sirius set Harry carefully on the ground for Remus to pick up, and then cowered even more behind Remus, clearly trying to hide, and failing miserably at this task.

Remus picked up Harry and faced the officers. "I'm sorry officers, is there a problem?"

One of the officers, whose face was scarlet, tried to talk, but stopped when another glared at him. The glaring one stepped forward and addressed Remus. "Sir, I'm afraid your dog just stole a baby. It also managed to knock over a display case with several toy snitches, quite a few cartons of milk, and an elderly woman named Margaret. He also pulled down my fellow officer's pants in front of several witnesses."

Remus shot a glare of his own at Sirius, who looked sheepish but couldn't help wagging his tail a little. Harry, meanwhile, waved at the dog.

"I'm sorry for the trouble, officers. You see, I have some sight problems, so I need my dog around. Unfortunately, he was trained by Swedish widows, and doesn't understand English yet, so it's been a bit of a struggle," Remus said smoothly. "As for the baby, he's my brother's son, so I'm taking care of him for the afternoon. I promise my dog has not, nor will ever, steal strangers' children. I believe that is standard behavioral training for guide dogs, even Swedish ones. Is there anything I can do to mend any of the situations caused by my dog's erratic behavior?"

The head officer blinked at him for a second, then realized he had to answer. "I guess it's all right then. Sorry for the bother. You should probably pay for the two cartons of milk though."

"I will. Thank you for your help, gentlemen."

The officers walked away, the red-faced one still fuming.

Remus turned to Sirius. "Really?"

Sirius shrugged as best as a huge dog can possibly shrug, and Remus rolled his eyes, but smiled.

"Come on, those cartons of milk aren't going to pay for themselves."

Sirius looked around to see if no one was looking, then changed back into his normal self. He reached out and took Harry from Remus, and started tickling him distractedly.

"Well, they could if we just leave right now and go buy some ice cream instead."

"No, Sirius."

"But...ice cream!"

"Sirius."

"Fine."

"... I'll buy us ice cream if you go apologize to Margaret first."

Sirius smiled a huge smile, pumped his fist in the air (the one that wasn't carrying Harry, luckily), passed Harry to Remus, and ran away before Remus could say another word.

A few minutes later, as Remus was finally done paying for the milk, he heard a loud crash from the other side of the store, and a high pitched shriek, which he hoped didn't come from Margaret.

**"SIRIUS!"**

Harry laughed.


	4. Chapter 4

The first rays of sunlight came in through the cracked and broken shutters. It was barely 5:00 AM, and Sirius was out of bed and in a Christmas jumper practically within 3 seconds. He meant to let Remus sleep in, he really did, but after about 5 minutes of excitedly bouncing, he decided that no more could Christmas morning be wasted. After so many Christmases dreaded and barely acknowledged at Grimmauld, he had years of pure Sirius Black energy to devote to this specific Christmas. He could barely contain his excitement and transformed into the giant black dog with a much simpler thought process. The world for Sirius was now a mash of Excited, Charge, and Remus. Bounding over to where Remus still slept, he let out a massive resounding bark.

Remus bolted upright and immediately looked around for Harry. Seeing him fine and somehow still sleeping, he turned to look at the one guilty for disturbing the peace. Seeing the large, wagging dog he groaned and flopped back into his pillow, closing his eyes. "Sirius….." he groaned. "What time is it? It feels like death o'clock. What time did we finish Christmas wrapping last night anyways? Last time I let you convince me to start wrapping them the night before."

He sat up suddenly. "Wait. Last night. It's Christmas morning!"

"It's going to be Christmas afternoon if you don't get up soon!" Sirius was still bouncing in place, but had re-transformed from Padfoot to Sirius while Remus had been speaking. "Its Harry's second Christmas! Come on! Hurry and get up! I'll go put the coffee on!" Sirius began practically running out of the room, transforming to a blurry black mass of fur along the way.

Remus got up and went to get Harry, who was already awake, from his crib. He pulled a red and yellow striped hat on Harry's head (Sirius had already bought him everything he could possibly find in Gryffindor colors) and carried him into the living room. The room was decorated with golden tinsel, and half of the room was filled with what was quite possibly the fattest Christmas tree Remus had ever seen before. It had taken them nearly an hour (and quite a bit of magic) to make it fit in the apartment, much less through the door. But it was worth it, and it looked amazing, if a bit messy. The bottom was covered in very badly wrapped presents, some of which looked like the wrapping paper had gone through the shredder beforehand.

Sirius was in the kitchen, with coffee running and a waffle maker which was just starting to steam. He never cooked anything the magical way if he could help it. The muggle way of cooking just seemed to have its own sort of magic to it. The Christmas tree in the living room was Sirius's pride and joy. It had been found in the park outside of their apartment and they had to do some very creative spellwork to get it into their house. All of the ornaments they owned, and a few things that weren't ornaments, like mugs, scarves, and cassettes, adorned the tree. Sirius bounded over to Remus and Harry. "Good morning, Harry! Happy Christmas! Isn't it exciting?!"

Remus hugged Sirius with one arm, the other still holding Harry, and smiled. "Very exciting."

He looked around. "One thing is missing though. Hold Harry, will you?"

After handing off Harry, who promptly started pulling Sirius' hair, he looked through the presents at the bottom of the tree. He pulled out one of the nicer-wrapped gifts and held it out to Sirius."Here."

While holding Harry, Sirius reached out and took the package. He excitedly opened the package, pulling out AC/DC's Back In Black album, which had come out earlier that year. He had been looking to faind a copy of it, but with apartment rent and his unsteady job, he had never had the money to make it happen. "Remus, thank you! When did you get this!? I didnt see you wrapping it!" Sirius moved to give Remus a fast kiss, and then went to the record player to put on the album.

Remus smiled at Sirius' reaction and at the music. Much as he loved his own mellower music, which was great for calming Harry, and just silence in general (of which there was a great lack in his life), this really was a very good album. Even Harry seemed to like it, and was dancing around to it, if his spastic arm movements could really be described as dancing.

The music successfully on at a comfortable rock Christmas volume, Sirius handed Harry to Remus. "Hold on, I've got to get your present, it was a bit obnoxious to hide." He enthusiastically bounced off back to his room, where there immediately came a great deal of shuffling, a loud thump, and a string of curses that were only quiet by Sirius's standards. Before long, Sirius walked out into the living room, carrying the tiniest jet black kitten in his arms.

"Sirius Orion Black," said Remus in a stunned voice.

"I don't have a middle-" started Sirius, but was interrupted by Remus. "You got me a cat?!"

Sirius frowned as the cat began to squirm around, and at Remus' reaction. He started rambling. "You don't want it? I mean, I know you have a ton of work already taking care of Harry, and me too if I have to be honest, but I saw you looking at cats in the petstore with Harry a few weeks ago and I just thought that you would like-"

He was promptly interrupted by Remus jumping up, taking the cat, putting it on the ground and tackle-hugged Sirius to the ground, almost knocking down the tree.

"Remus, you can't just knock over the tree, you could hurt Harry! Or the kitten!" Sirius laughed, not really bothered at all. With everything that had happened, they both deserved the happiness, and if what it took was a kitten to make Remus happy, then it was well worth the added costs. "And hopefully the kitten, whatever we decide to name it, will play well with Harry. They're about the same age, relatively, I think. What are you going to name it?" They still had not gotten up from the floor, and were by this time sitting comfortably on the floor, with Harry on the couch above them, and the kitten crawling around, exploring both them and the room.

Remus laughed, and ran through his hair. "Sorry about that. But Sirius, you got me a cat! A cat!"

Sirius laughed, and got up, helping Remus up afterwards. Remus immediately went to chase after the cat. A moment later, Remus and doing his best to hold both Harry and the cat. "We have a problem. What should we name it? Because the name has to be perfect. It just has to be. There is no other option." He lifted up the cat so that he could stare at its cute furry face. "What about Chad?"

Sirius laughed for a solid 30 seconds. "Chad. That's so suburban! I love it! That is brilliant. We're like a proper suburban family; we've got a toddler and a cat named Chad! That is wonderful." Chad was currently destroying the paper wrappings from Christmas, and Harry was watching and laughing. "And I've got a friend who works at a muggle pet shop, so we can get discounts on everything!" Suddenly Sirius sniffed, and sat up at attention. "Shit, we forgot the waffles!" He then got up very quickly and ran into the kitchen.

Remus picked up the cat and put him on the couch next to Harry, and then started picking up the shredded wrapping paper. As he was doing that, Harry looked suspiciously at the furry animal in front of him. He leaned in closer, until their noses almost touched, and his eyes widened. "CAT!" he yelled out, making the poor, terrified animal jump up into the air and promptly run and hide behind the tree, giving Remus a a dirty look as it did. "Sirius, you'd better come in here. Harry is antagonizing Chad already. And apparently knows the word cat."

The smell of smoke was coming out of the kitchen, and the faucet was running full blast. "Come put out the waffles! I'll get Harry to stop." Sirius walked into the living room, with a few wisps of burnt waffle smoke came along with him. He walked over to the couch where Harry was seated. "Harry we don't yell at the cat, it gets scared." The kitten peeked out from behind the tree, seeming to slowly calm down. "Come here, Chad! Oh!" He pitched up the volume of his voice a bit to reach Remus. "We should do Harry's presents next!"

Remus answered from inside the kitchen. "All right, give me a minute! I'm just putting out the cupboards!" A few minutes later he was back in the living room, holding a very badly wrapped, but very colorful, present. He crouched down so he would be closer to Harry's height, and handed it to him. "Sorry, Sirius wrapped it." Harry grabbed it and held it tight, but looked confused. "Sirius, you want to help him out?"

Sirius smiled and began unwrapping it, leaving it in Harry's hands, ensuring he knew it was his. From out of the box he pulled four plush toys, very well made, but also obviously home-made. One was a stag, another a dog almost as big as the stag, the third a wolf only slightly smaller than the dog, and the fourth a small grey rat. Each doll was almost half as large as Harry himself, and far bigger than Chad, except the rat of course. "See this Harry? These are yours now! This one's Prongs, that's your dad. These two are Padfoot and Moony, that's me and Remus. And this one is Wormtail. He was our friend." Harry took the dolls delightedly, clearly very pleased with his new toys.

Remus looked at the presents in slight surprise, but he turned away before Sirius could see his expression. He'd known what the presents were, they'd planned them months in advance, but seeing the rat… that was not something he had expected. He has been so sure that Sirius would have taken it out of the group that he hadn't even thought to ask. And even if he'd thought about it, he probably wouldn't have. They still didn't talk much about what had happened, even though the tracking spells Sirius had put out for Peter were still active and waiting. Still, he guessed it was better. He had been their friend, one of them, and it wouldn't be honest, it wouldn't be the reality, if he wasn't in the group. Still, he appreciated it a few moments later when Chad pounced on it.

Everything was calm as the morning settled. Remus drank his coffee, with Chad prancing about playing with the wrappings. Harry played with his new toys. Prongs seemed to be his favorite. Sirius saw how happy it made him, and he knew that James would have been absurdly proud, in his uniquely James way. It suddenly struck Sirius that he would never get another chance to see anything that would make him proud. This realization slammed into him like a muggle shipping truck. Everything that Sirius had considered normal, and every one of his automatic thoughts, were brought to nothing but memories. It was almost bittersweet, seeing Harry with the model Prongs. He looked just like the pictures of James as a child.

Remus smiled as he sipped his coffee. It was Christmas, and he was with Sirius and Harry, and he's just gotten a cat. Sure, the kitchen had almost burnt down, but it wasn't too charred. Well, it was fixable. Most of it, anyways. Seeing Harry with the deer made him feel nostalgic though. He missed James and Lily. They had been his best friends, his family, and nobody could ever replace them. Still, Remus felt more at peace than he had since that terrible Halloween night. Taking care of Harry, he felt like he was repaying Prongs for everything he had done for him. And he loved Harry, he really did. He smiled at Sirius, who seemed to be completely focused on what Harry was doing. He loved Sirius too. Sirius, with his dramatic flights of fancy, with his recklessness and impulsive cat-buying, Sirius, the person who cared too much. Remus loved Sirius.

This Christmas had been a lovely one. Every year since Hogwarts, Christmas had been a Marauder celebration, and even with all of that gone, Sirius still found himself with a familiar Christmas feeling. Somewhat colder with loss, but familiar all the same. Turning to Remus, he began to talk when suddenly it seemed the whole flat was lit up with flashing lights and a screeching sound. The sound had set Chad off howling, and Harry crying, and everything was in absolute chaos. Sirius started, and then went absolutely still. The light that had been in his eyes only moments before was gone into icy blue. It was terrifying, the potential horror in that expression. Only two words were needed. "It's Peter."


End file.
